Berselius touched on this in his memory, but I think it deserves to be highlighted. It is my favorite memory of not just Sammy Sosa, but the game of baseball itself. You’ve seen it a thousand times. It wasn’t even something Sammy Sosa did to help the Cubs win a game. In fact, it was after something that helped the opposing team.
Let’s make one thing very clear: people can rewrite history all they wish, but the 1998 home run race was one of the best things that ever happened to the game It was fun. It was exciting. It was thrilling. It was awesome. It was unbelievable. It was a million other things, and despite cries to the contrary, it was and will always be a positive sequence of events for this game. I don’t want to get into how Sosa and McGuire saved baseball even though I could. I don’t want to preach about how important those two men were to this game at a time they were needed even though I could. I don’t want to talk about how Sosa energized a lazy and content fan base even though I could. I just want to talk about one moment in one game between two teams and two people on one September night.
On September 8, 1998 Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris’ single season home run record while playing at home against the Cubs. How much more perfect could it be? The same two men that captivated millions and millions of fans across the world would be on the same field when one of them broke the record. It’s amazing enough that these two could share the moment together, but the celebration was something we had never seen and have not seen since. Two men. Two baseball players. One played for the Cubs and the other for the Cardinals. The Cubs and Cardinals are one of the oldest and best rivalries in sports and on that night in St. Louis a player from each team celebrated the accomplishments of the other. While it happened after McGwire broke the record, there is no doubt that McGwire was as happy for Sosa as he was for himself. The two players from opposing teams celebrated on the field together during an historic moment. That celebration was something special.
It was only a brief moment, but the 1998 season can be summed up with just one picture.
Anybody who knows anything about baseball will know exactly what happened and when it happened (at least the year). There are few moments in sports where that is true. This was the greatest moment of baseball that I have ever seen. Nobody cared at that moment that the Yankees were on their way to becoming the first team to win 200 games in the regular season. Nobody cared that the year before the Marlins became the first team in baseball to own the distinction of not being the best team in baseball, but calling themselves the best team in baseball (that was very confusing). I’ve been watching this game since the early 80s. I’ve watched the Sandberg game several times. I’ll always remember it. I watched the ‘84 team do something that no Cubs team in 40 years had done. I watched the ‘89 team. I’ve seen all the seasons the Cubs lost. I’ve watched Kerry Wood’s 20-strikeout games numerous times. I’ve watched Carlos Zambrano’s no-hitter twice and have watched the highlights a hundred more. None of them were even close to that September night. We waited all season and watched and hoped for something like that to happen. Both players rooted for the other despite being on opposing teams. The two players from entirely different background became friends over something as meaningless as hitting a baseball. The bond they shared that spring, summer, and fall became something that not just the United States shared with them, but so did the Dominican Republic, all of Latin America and all of the Hispanic speaking countries around the world.
In many ways America’s national pastime had become much of the world’s pastime. That moment between Sosa and McGwire says it all. Teams didn’t matter. Ethnicity didn’t matter. Background didn’t matter. The only thing that mattered, the only thing that brought them together, the only thing that brought so many fans together was something as silly as two grown men hitting baseballs. That’s something to remember.
1. Stuart Turkeylink (view all comments) — Jun 04, 2009 @ 01:12 PM
Kyle Gibson + TJS would be still be kick ass at No. 31. And I’d be totally willing to take a chance on Alex White.